The dynamics of food shopping behavior: Exploring travel patterns in low-income Detroit neighborhoods experiencing extreme disinvestment using agent-based modeling.

Igor Vojnovic,Arika Ligmann-Zielinska,Timothy F Ledoux,Wenjia Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243501

Igor Vojnovic, Arika Ligmann-Zielinska + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243501

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Abstract

Only a handful of studies have leveraged agent-based models (ABMs) to examine public health outcomes and policy interventions associated with uneven urban food environments. While providing keen insights about the role of ABMs in studying urban food environments, these studies underutilize real-world data on individual behavior in their models. This study provides a unique contribution to the ABM and food access literature by utilizing survey data to develop an empirically-rich spatially-explicit ABM of food access. This model is used to simulate and scrutinize individual travel behavior associated with accessing food in low-income neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment in Detroit (Michigan), U.S. In particular, the relationship between trip frequencies, mode of travel, store choice, and distances traveled among individuals grouped into strata based on selected sociodemographic characteristics, including household income and age, is examined. Results reveal a diversified picture of not only how income and age shape food shopping travel but also the different thresholds of tolerance for non-motorized travel to stores. Younger and poorer population subgroups have a higher propensity to utilize non-motorized travel for shopping than older and wealthier subgroups. While all groups tend to travel considerable distances outside their immediate local food environment, different sociodemographic groups maintain unique spatial patterns of grocery-shopping behavior throughout the city and the suburbs. Overall, these results challenge foundational tenets in urban planning and design, regarding the specific characteristics necessary in the built environment to facilitate accessibility to urban amenities, such as grocery stores. In neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment, sociodemographic conditions play a more important role than the built environment in shaping food accessibility and ultimately travel behavior.

Highlights

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the coupling of rapid suburbanization and disinvestment within urban cores has reshaped the spatial structure of America’s cities
Acknowledging these particular characteristics and burdens faced by Detroit’s lower east side residents, we examine travel behavior among the different sociodemographic subgroups, with the emphasis placed in this analysis on examining the impact of age and income in shaping the nature of food-related shopping
In this research on the dynamics of food-shopping behavior, the study provides a unique contribution to complex urban systems modeling, and agent-based models (ABMs), by utilizing real-world data in simulating individual travel behavior in accessing food in lowincome Detroit neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment

Summary

Introduction

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the coupling of rapid suburbanization and disinvestment within urban cores has reshaped the spatial structure of America’s cities. With the suburbanization of residents, businesses, and the tax base more broadly, urban commercial destinations–from personal and health services to healthy restaurant options and retail outlets–have been steadily moving to locations in the more distant metropolitan peripheries Within this context, considerable research interest has been placed on examining the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthy food options within urban neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment and decline. Particular vulnerabilities have been recognized among poor, minority populations living within cities, who are faced with limited access to culturally appropriate and nutritious food within their neighborhoods Due to their low incomes, these population subgroups tend to have more restricted mobility [5,6,7,8,9,10]. Their travel constraints are shaped by the limited private automobile ownership among lower-income households, and due to the more inadequate public transit access in cities experiencing disinvestment and decline

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